Using Smart Adobe LiveMotion Objects

You can add LiveMotion files to your Web pages in the SWF format. This lets you add lively animated images to your site that remain linked to LiveMotion native source files. Any changes you make in Adobe GoLive or in LiveMotion are updated for you.

Note

You must have LiveMotion installed on your hard disk to complete this section of the lesson.

Prior to using Smart LiveMotion objects in Adobe GoLive, you must make the following export settings in LiveMotion itself.

1.

Start LiveMotion, if it is not already running.

2.

Choose Window > Export.

3.

Select SWF in the top pop-up menu of the Export palette.

4.

Close LiveMotion.

Placing a Smart LiveMotion Object

1.

From the Smart tab of the Objects palette, drag a Smart LiveMotion Object icon to the top middle cell of the table just below the Smart Illustrator Object.

Dragging Smart Live Motion Object icon to table cell

2.

In the Live Image Inspector, click the Browse button ( ), and locate Rooster.liv in the Startfiles folder. The path to the file is Lesson04/04Start/Farm Folder/Farm/Startfiles/Rooster.liv. Click Open.

3.

The Conversion Settings dialog appears. Choose Shockwave Flash, and click OK. Adobe LiveMotion opens in the background, if it is not already open, and the Updating from Source File progress bar tells you that the file is being converted. You'll also see Generating a SWF File and Generating a Report progress bars. A save dialog box appears.

4.

Save the image to your Images folder. Note the .swf extension. This tells you the file is in the SWF format.

5.

Preview the Farm working.html page in your browser to see the animation by choosing Special > Show in Default Browser. When you're done, close your browser and return to Adobe GoLive.

6.

Double-click the Smart LiveMotion Object on your page. LiveMotion starts, if it's not open, and the original Rooster.liv source file appears. Make some changes to the file (for example, change the color of the black rectangle), and save the file.

Note

If the Smart Object's application does not open, choose Edit > Preferences, expand General preferences icon in the left pane, select User Interface, and make sure the Launch Other Applications To Edit Media Files option displayed in the right pane is enabled.

7.

Go back to Adobe GoLive. When you do, Adobe GoLive automatically updates the Smart LiveMotion Object on your page to reflect the changes that you just made to the source file in LiveMotion.

Note

Since Smart LiveMotion Objects are always placed as SWF, a vector-based format that scales well, LiveMotion does not have to be open in the background when you resize a Smart LiveMotion Object on your Web page.